The Size of a Mitzvah

Many people focus their energies on what appears to them to be an important commandment or a “big mitzvah,” often neglecting what they think is not such an important commandment or a “smaller mitzvah.”

What makes one commandment more important to us than another or one mitzvah bigger than another is often subjective. Commonly, the amount of fuss and ado which people make over a mitzvah is our gauge of its significance or greatness.

Is a big mitzvah really bigger than a small mitzvah? Is there really any way confined by our limited understanding of God’s ways to gauge the size of a mitzvah?

The Talmud of Eretz Yisrael (Peah 1:1) teaches us that God concealed from us the reward of each commandment so that we perform all of them with the same faith and sincerity.

Were we to know the importance of commandments or the size of mitzvot we would show preference for one over the other or perform some commandments perfunctorily—or maybe not even at all.

When we perform any mitzvah it should always be with complete faith and sincerity—whether the mitzvah appears to be big or small.

May God give us the strength to perform all commandments with the same fervor and dedication. One never knows which mitzvah it will be that will bring a person salvation!